Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Hit the Forests of Malaysia

[kennyc]

Malaysia released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a local forest this month in an effort to curb dengue fever--dengue fever is transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito, is often found in tropical and subtropical environments, and causes headaches, muscular pain, and nausea, and sometimes death. There is no cure or vaccine and it's not uncommon for travelers to pick up the disease, especially in the popular tourist countries of Southeast Asia. ....

http://www.fastcompany.com/1721330/g...ts-of-malaysia

[Abigail Lawrence]

Now lets sit back and see what a disaster it turns into. When they breed and morph into super dooper mosies..xx

[Lemurion]

I want to see three meter wingspans and the ability to lift grown elephants. (Yes I've seen too many B-movies.)

[natasha_fawn]

This has the potential to be a really good idea. The males produce inviable offspring. Each time one of these males mates with a female, that's more offspring that will be inviable, thus reducing the population of these mosquitoes next year. That could drastically reduce the number of cases of dengue fever and save many, many lives.

These mosquitoes can't ever evolve into anything goofy or scary. The trick is that they can't pass on their genes. They die soon after mating, then their offspring die before hatching. This does mean that to continue to control the population you would have to release more of these males every year. The only potential that I can see for these genetically modified mosquitoes to cause the population to evolve is if there is a trait in some females that make those females avoid mating with the modified males. Then the modified males would stop having an effect on the population size.

People have been considering doing something like this to control malaria for years. A while back there was talk about sterlizing male mosquitoes (using radiation), then releasing them, for the same effect. I don't remember if that ever was tried.

The main issue I do see is that a severe reduction in mosquito populations could have knock-on effect on other organisms or even the entire ecosystem.

Edit:
The controlled release of male mosquitoes genetically engineered to be sterile has successfully wiped out dengue fever in a town of around 3000 people, in Grand Cayman, an island in the Caribbean Sea, researchers report. This was another test by the same company last year.

[wyndslash]

hmm...this is interesting. my brother got dengue fever a few years back, and a friend of mine got it last year.

[nohmi2]

I have not had dengue fever, but as I had written elsewhere on MR: I had

malaria as a twelve-year old in Rhodesia(Zimbabwe) and I was convinced

that I was going to die.

I can still taste the doses of quinine that I had to consume.

Mosquitos are deadly.

Cheers

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by nohmi2

I have not had dengue fever, but as I had written elsewhere on MR: I had

malaria as a twelve-year old in Rhodesia(Zimbabwe) and I was convinced

that I was going to die.

I can still taste the doses of quinine that I had to consume.

Mosquitos are deadly.

Cheers

And I'll be the anxiety goes up any time you see/hear a buzzing....

it would for me.

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by kennyc

And I'll be the anxiety goes up any time you see/hear a buzzing....

it would for me.

I have mosquito-phobia (if there is such a word.)

Even Alexander the Great died from malaria I believe; that and alcohol.

Cheers

[Greg Anos]

This is a Model T approach. A better approach would be to have a dominate gene to breed in that causes death of the female when exposed to Dengue Fever. That way you can keep the mosiquito and eliminate the disease.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

This is a Model T approach. A better approach would be to have a dominate gene to breed in that causes death of the female when exposed to Dengue Fever. That way you can keep the mosiquito and eliminate the disease.

Right, but we're not to that level of ability yet....

Originally Posted by natasha_fawn

The main issue I do see is that a severe reduction in mosquito populations could have knock-on effect on other organisms or even the entire ecosystem.

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

This is a Model T approach. A better approach would be to have a dominate gene to breed in that causes death of the female when exposed to Dengue Fever. That way you can keep the mosiquito and eliminate the disease.

Playing the Devil's Advocate in a few ways.

Wasn't the idea behind creating a hybrid between honey bees and African bees that the aggressive nature of the African bees would be lost, or greatly reduced? That in any case the hybrid could only survive in tropical climates? It was all safe. Wrong on both counts.

This is not as weird as it sounds, but if severe reduction in mosquito population could have a “knock-on effect” on other organisms, then it is conceivable that so could severely reducing another species; the organism that causes Dengue Fever? Either way we humans are altering an ecosystem. Time and time again this has resulted in unforeseen consequences. If we are going to alter the world for our benefit so eliminate mosquitoes.

The ecologically safe way to approach this would be to genetically modify humans.

[yvanleterrible]

I'd be inclined to control what effect the Dengue virus has on us rather than eliminate the carrier. Thinking this way has always played tricks on us.

Mosquitos have ecological functions. What if it's job was to inject the Dengue virus as a means of control on an invasive organism of some kind?

We should really put more emphasis on cracking the virus instead or remedy to the direct negative causes it has on humans.

[coinín]

Originally Posted by nohmi2

I have not had dengue fever, but as I had written elsewhere on MR: I had

malaria as a twelve-year old in Rhodesia(Zimbabwe) and I was convinced

that I was going to die.

I can still taste the doses of quinine that I had to consume.

Mosquitos are deadly.

Cheers

This is why I drink so much gin.

[Mortis]

Both my wife and I have had dengue. I had a very mild case and only caused a couple of days of headaches and a fever that went up and down, I'm told I would be immune for a year or so. My wife on the other hand was in the hospital for 4 days. While she was in the hospital a lady in the next room died from dengue haemorrhagic fever, not something I would want to go through again so I hope that the mutant mosquitos eradicate it from Malaysia.

There was talk that doctors in Thailand were close to a vaccine, that would be a better ecological response to dengue, but I would be happy if there were no mosquitos.

[MAT160]

I've had Dengue and was hospitalize for over a week, it's no joke! I hope this experiment works